Chafee’s Budget: Economic Development and Job Creation

One of Governor Chafee's FY15 main budget principles included "improving Rhode Island's competitive position", which the Governor said includes no increases in broad based taxes, with modest revenue increases of $16.2 million derived from closing tax loopholes and enhanced enforcement activities, and invests additional funding for enhancing the arts economy and workforce immersion programs.

In addition, the budget includes a proposed task force to begin combating the existence of an "underground economy in which individuals and businesses conceal their activities from government licensing, regulatory, and taxing authorities."

During his budget address, Chafee said that since he took office, over 11,000 Rhode Island jobs have been created, but acknowledged, "I know this isn't enough."

Workforce development was a major theme of the Governor's budget, with a total of $1.8 million to support workforce development. Senate President M. Teresa-Paiva Weed said however that she would like to see an even greater investment in workforce development.

"If there was one area where we had an opportunity to infuse money, workforce development is one area I'd like to see a greater investment. Tuesday we'll be releasing a report, "Rhodes Back to Work," where along with my colleagues we'll release those initiative," said Paiva-Weed.

Business rankings are among the worst

GoLocal recently reported that Rhode Island, along with Massachusetts, are among the "worst states" for projected job growth in 2014, according to Moody's Analytics.

RI Commerce Corporation's Marcel Valois strongly support's the focus of the budget, "This budget makes the state more competitive, it holds the line on taxes, puts investments in workforce development, and a commitment to infrastructure to ensure everything that supports commerce is up to date. It hit all the marks."

Justin Katz with the Center for Freedom and Prosperity took issue with the Governors' economic development strategy.

"There are items in the budget that might not be detrimental of themselves, outside of any real-life context, but we can't get caught up in this game of finding edible crumbs in piles of fiscal dirt. Rhode Island's condition is such that our thinking must be binary. We need opportunity now or our spiral will continue; we'll invest in education, and to the extent that more money actually does any good, we'll simply be educating young Rhode Islanders for the benefit of some other state where there's opportunity and freedom to experiment with one's career," said Katz. "Will this tax-and-spending plan help struggling Rhode Islanders, now? No. We are allowed to do things differently."

Governor's Legacy

"The governor's legacy is that he has helped to distract from the critical issues that face Rhode Islanders, which are mainly about economic freedom and jobs," continued Katz. "To the extent that he's dabbled in those areas, he's used non-legislative means to implement and solidify harmful progressive miscalculations and at best frittered away critical years that should have brought our beautiful state, with its many geographical and historical advantages, a nation-leading recovery."

Related Slideshow: 13 Biggest Business Stories in RI in 2013

13 Best Biz Cities in RI

GoLocal's examination of the Best Cities and Towns to do business in RI explored new ground for companies looking to relocate or expand.

Our researchers culled municipally-distinct data on tax rates, workforce availability, cost of living index, economic indicators for short term and long-term job growth, even average driving time to TF Green Airport, to quantify a blend of factors that make for a pro-business environment. Because every city and state in RI complies by statewide measures, those metrics weren't included in GoLocal's research.

12 Superman

Our coverage of the Superman building's threatened future started back in 2011, when a news story by GoLocal's News Team first unveiled the threat that Bank of America would leave the building and leave the city with the largest embarrassment.

11 JetBlue Factor

JetBlue's arrival to Rhode Island was first announced by GoLocal is the summer of 2012, but no one quite knew the impact of the JetBlue factor, until a promotion by the airline was launched in partnership with the Big Blue Bug, which rocked the internet and sold out $20 tickets in minutes.

The promotion launched on GoLocalProv showed the world of advertising has changed forever.

10 New England's Business

GoLocal's business team loves to collect and breakdown critical data to help Rhode Islander's get a beat on the story or even the bigger story.

One massively wide-read story was one that pivoted off the data of the Milken Institute and its rankings of all the cities in America.

The Best-Performing Cities study is published annually in order to highlight the cities and metropolitan areas in the U.S. that are prospering, and to point out those that are struggling from a structural point of view. By examining job, wage, and technology metrics over a five-year period, the publication utilizes a data-driven approach to provide a comprehensive measure of economic strength.

8 38 Studios Defendants

An exclusive report by GoLocal's Investigative Team unveiled that defendant's in the 38 Studio's lawsuit had filed responses, and they had a very different opinion of what caused the collapse and the loss of $100 million to the State of Rhode Island.

Almost every defendant pinned the blame on Governor Lincoln Chafee for failing to give oversight and then hitting the panic button and forcing the ultimate collapse of the company.

7 Social Media

Social media continues to flex its muscle and demonstrate that it is far more influential than legacy media.

Twitters IPO and the progression of the Facebook model have redefined business.

One article in GoLocal's on going coverage of the metamorphosis of social media was a great guidance article by Johnson & Wales' Sierra Barter which functionally went viral.

Amazingly, one of the biggest stories of 2013, the effort by union leaders to force John DePetro off the air for calling female teacher protestors "WHORES," has been battled almost exclsuively on social media.

5 College Endowments

In Rhode Island, colleges and universities are big business. They are major economic engines and each of the local colleges readily announce the positive impact they have on the local economy and job creation.

3 Twin River Rebound

Twin River is now a real casino with humans not video tapes dealing black jack.

Under the leadership of John Taylor, the company has rebounded from bankruptcy and become a model for gaming firms.

Now, Twin River is expanding and has made a strategic purchase in Mississippi.

With casinos coming online in Massachusetts sometime in the future, Twin River is doing a better job diversifying and planning for the future than the state of Rhode Island, who is so dependent on the revenue.

2 Unemployment

Rhode Island's unemployment situtation is a national embarrassment, and it is hard to see a governmental strategy designed for its improvement. In the post-38 Studios environment, decision-makers are affraid to champion significant initiatives.

1 Demise of Newspapers

In the past year, the Providence Journal has laid off, demanded buyout or pushed retirements of over 50 reporters, editors and photographers - a staggering percentage of the newsroom.

Many of the those who departed were among the most recognized. Pulitzer Prize winning writer Mike Stanton quit to take a teaching job at UConn and now freelances for the Boston Globe.

Speaking of the Boston Globe, Red Sox owner John Henry bought the Globe from the New York Times for $70 million which represented a 97% loss in value for what the NYTimes had paid for the Globe and other related media.

As GoLocal's Pultizer Prize winning reporter Dean Starkman has written repeatedly about the need for media to invest in content. His words seem to fall on deaf ears.